Food Service: News

July 1, 2013

BH-BL leaving National School Lunch Program

Favorite lunch items returning to school cafeterias

A lunch with canned green beansand part of a chicken
pattie on a mini croissant was healthy but a turn off
for students.

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink."

No one knows the wisdom of this old saying better than
someone who prepares lunches for hundreds of school children.
And given the pages of new regulations that took effect
September 2012 in the National School Lunch Program, school
lunch managers everywhere would probably also agree that "You
can offer nutritious, healthy foods, but you can't make kids eat
them or like them."

In fact, problems with the new lunch regulations have caused
the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Board of Education to vote to
leave the National School Lunch Program starting in September
2013.

Hungry, frustrated children plus lost income

After discussing the issue several times and examining a
year's worth of data, in June members of the school board
unanimously agreed that BH-BL food service manager Nicky Boehm
could likely do a better job of providing lunches in the
district's five schools if she were no longer burdened with the
regulations that come with participation in the National School
Lunch Program (NSLP).

A letter is being mailed to all BH-BL parents about this and
other changes in the lunch program. Parents will have 60 days to
share their comments with the district before the change takes
effect with the opening of school in September. However,
assistant superintendent Chris Abdoo believes most parents will
be pleased with the change and pleased to see the return of some
favorite food items and some larger portion sizes in September.

"Ms. Boehm and her staff worked hard to implement the new
regulations, but there were just too many problems and too many
foods that students did not like and would not purchase," Abdoo
says. "Students complained of being hungry with these lunches
and the district lost money. I'm confident we can do better on
our own next year."

Due to lower sales, BH-BL's lunch program ended the 2012-13
school year roughly $100,000 in the red, which is deeply
upsetting to Boehm who has taken pride not only in offering
tasty, nutritious food to her students but in doing so in ways
that allowed her five cafeterias to operate in the black.

Food sales declined at all five schools during 2012-13, but
especially at the high school, which is the largest school and
ordinarily generates the most sales. "Students felt they weren't
getting good value for their money," says Boehm. "The high
schoolers especially complained the portion sizes were too
small, and many more students brought in lunch from home."

Schools are not required to participate in the NSLP, but most
schools do in order to receive financial incentives, including
low cost federal commodity foods and partial reimbursement of
the cost of food served to students who qualify for free and
reduced priced meals.

Free & reduced price lunches still available

BH-BL will continue to offer free lunches and reduced price
lunches for students whose families meet the federal income
guidelines for these. Only nine percent of Burnt Hills students
qualified for either free or reduced-price lunches during
2012-13 compared to the state average of 43 percent.

Boehm and Abdoo calculate that they can increase sales enough
to cover the cost of providing lunches for these students.
Because students often did not like the food offered during the
past year, even the number of free and reduced price meals
served at BH-BL decreased last year.

Boehm and her staff will continue to offer complete lunches
with the five suggested components (a fruit, vegetable, grain,
protein, and low fat milk) for a set price. Students will also
be able to purchase individual items a la carte if they prefer.

The price for complete lunches will increase by 25¢ in
September, a change that would have been needed whether the
district stayed in the NSLP or not, Boehm says, since prices
have not increased in two years. A complete lunch including milk
will now cost $2.50 for elementary students, $3.00 for secondary
students (whose portion sizes are larger), and $4.00 for adults.

More fresh foods, more favorite foods

Boehm calculates that starting in September her staff can continue to
offer meals that are as healthy as what was required under the
NSLP but that more students will actually purchase and eat.

She expects to create lunches that fall within the
recommended calorie guidelines for children (550 - 650 calories
for grades K-5; 600 - 700 calories for grades 6-8; and 750- 850
calories for grades 9-12), but she looks forward to no longer
being forced to plan each week's menus to fit into a rigid set
of regulations regarding specific types and serving sizes of
food.

"We plan to offer items that are much more appetizing in size and looks. I want to
serve more fresh fruits and vegetables and less of the canned,
commodity fruits and vegetables," she says. "I want to return to
some of the menus that students love, like different types of
salads, wraps and sandwiches, especially at the high school.
Taco salad is one of our kids' all-time favorites and it's so
healthy, so why not offer it more often?"

"The intent of the federal regulations was great, but the
rigidity of the program was a backbreaker," she says, referring
to both the daily and weekly requirements.

For instance, in 2012-13 the NSLP required schools to serve
students at least one-half cup of each of the five groups of
vegetables (dark green, red/orange, dried beans/peas, "starchy,"
and "other" vegetables) at least once a week. And vegetables
must be served alone in a separate cup rather than incorporated
into, say, a soup, salad or taco filling, in order to prove that
the student was getting at least a half-cup serving. "Our
students will eat beans in soup or salsa, but I can't get them
to eat plain beans," Boehm notes.

Boehm also ran into trouble with the rigidity of the protein
and grain requirements. Elementary student lunches could contain
no more than 10 ounces of the "protein" component per week. So
if she served the students' favorite three-ounce chicken patty
twice in a given week in various forms, she only had four ounces
of protein left to stretch over three lunches. A similar problem
occurred with chicken nuggets. "The elementary kids hated
getting only three nuggets. They wanted five like they used to
have, but we had to plan for the rest of the week."

With an allowance of only 10-12 ounces of grain per week for
high school students, she could not offer sandwiches every day,
and had to serve only half a sandwich once a week, which was
particularly upsetting to high school athletes.

Another example of the complexity of the NSLP regulations
occurred when a lunch inspector noticed Boehm was serving a high
school lunch using 54 gram whole wheat hamburger rolls. The
requirement is for at least 56 grams of grains per day, so Boehm
had to add a package of crackers to each meal.

Boehm also looks forward to being able to act more like the
trained chef she is and less like a food policeman: "I'm excited
that we'll be able to make more foods from scratch, too, next
year like home-made soups, lasagna, Tex Mex dishes, and
southern-style chicken and biscuits, which I couldn't get to fit
into the federal regulations."

Other school districts in the Capital Region that have opted
to leave the NSLP include Niskayuna and Voorheesville. Should
conditions change, districts can opt to return to the program at
a later date.